Godhead

Introduction

In Martinus’ world picture, the Godhead is the universe understood as one all-embracing living being. It is not a being situated somewhere within the universe, but the eternal living unity whose organism consists of all existing living beings and their bodies, consciousness and creative faculties. Individual beings are described as “sons of God”: they are living units and at the same time organs through which the Godhead experiences and manifests. ^[1] ^[2]

The Godhead is analysed through the same threefold structure as every living being: an I or “Living Something”, a creative faculty, and an organism. This analysis connects the Godhead with the cosmic consciousness of living beings, the spiral cycle, the six basic energies and the development of universal love. ^[3] ^[4]

The universe as a living being

The starting point for Martinus’ analysis is that energies and matter cannot exist independently of living beings. Purpose belongs to consciousness, and consciousness can manifest only through a living being. The universe is therefore described as a unity composed exclusively of living beings. In Livets Bog, Martinus says that this unity has the same three conditions as an individual living being: an experiencing fixed point, a creative principle and bodies. ^[5]

In The Eternal World Picture, the same relation is expressed through the symbols X1, X2 and X3. The visible universe is the Godhead’s X3, or organism; the creative faculties of all living beings together constitute its X2; and the I’s of all living beings together constitute its X1. Because the Godhead constitutes everything that exists, Martinus describes it as having no being above, below or beside it. ^[6]

The universal living being includes organisms on microcosmic, mesocosmic and macrocosmic scales. The daily experience of every being is consequently described as an interaction between that being and the Godhead: fellow beings are organs through which the Godhead creates circumstances of experience and manifestation. ^[7]

The Father and the sons of God

The terms “Father” and “sons of God” express the relation between the universal living being and the beings within it. In Martinus’ explanation of Symbol No. 5, the whole horizontal figure represents the Godhead or Father, while the vertical figures represent the individual sons of God. The Father is the total unity; the sons of God are the living units that constitute its organs of manifestation and experience. ^[8]

The cosmic father-and-son principle is described more directly in The Eternal World Picture. Each living being is inseparably connected with a greater whole and therefore constitutes a local region in that whole. The greater whole is the source of the sons of God and is their Father; the individual being experiences the Godhead and its own eternal identity as a son of God when it becomes a finished human being with cosmic consciousness. ^[9]

A macrobeing cannot, in this analysis, be identified with the Godhead merely because it is greater than another being. Every being in the series of macrobeings is also a microbeing in a still greater organism. Such beings are sons of God and constitute particular organs of the Godhead, whereas the Godhead as a whole is the universe itself and is not one member of a larger series. ^[10]

The Godhead’s organism and consciousness

The Godhead’s organism is the totality of temporal and spatial realities. It includes the organisms of macrocosmic, mesocosmic and microcosmic beings. These organisms are created tools through which the Godhead’s creative faculty unfolds and through which the eternal experience of life is maintained. ^[11]

Martinus connects the Godhead’s consciousness with the six basic energies: instinct, gravity, feeling, intelligence, intuition and memory. Their cooperation forms the fields of consciousness and the spheres of life experience. The plant kingdom is associated with instinct, the animal kingdom with gravity, the human kingdom with feeling, the kingdom of wisdom with intelligence, the divine world with intuition, and the kingdom of bliss with memory. ^[12]

The Godhead is able to experience and create through all living beings. Their organisms together constitute its organism, their creative faculties constitute its creative faculty, and their I’s constitute its I. On this basis Martinus describes the Godhead as omnipresent, almighty, all-wise and all-loving. ^[13]

The eternal aspect of this analysis is the I and its superconsciousness. Martinus applies the same principle to the universe as the gigantic living being and to the beings within it: the I, superconsciousness, pole principle, fate element, talent kernels and related structures are imperishable, while their connection with the temporal and spatial organism belongs to the experience of life. ^[14]

The divine world and cosmic consciousness

The divine world is the sphere in which intuition reaches a culmination. Martinus describes it as the place where creative ideas and the conclusions or answers of the universe have their domicile. Since all conclusions are present there, he calls it the domicile of the whole of the Godhead’s consciousness and identifies that consciousness with cosmic consciousness. ^[15]

The experience of the Godhead is therefore related to the development of the individual’s faculties. Permanent cosmic consciousness requires the cooperation of intuition with highly developed intelligence and neighbourly love. In Martinus’ account, being “one with the Father” means being in harmony with the Godhead’s way of being. ^[16]

The finished human being experiences this relation in awake day-consciousness. Martinus describes such a being as living in conscious coexistence with the Godhead and in complete harmony with its consciousness. World redeemers lead beings at earlier stages toward the same condition. ^[17]

The Godhead and the spiral cycle

Martinus describes the movement through the spiral cycle as an eternal rhythm from darkness to light and from light to darkness. He compares this rhythm with a cosmic breathing through which the Godhead and the consciousness of living beings are renewed. The contrasts of light and darkness, animal and human, and evil and good provide the conditions for sensory perception and experience. ^[18]

The six kingdoms of the spiral cycle correspond to changing combinations of the basic energies. At the culmination of the divine world, intuition, intelligence and universal love form the primary capacity of consciousness. In the kingdom of bliss, memory becomes dominant and the being experiences the universe inwardly as a world of memories. ^[19]

In the kingdom of bliss, the being can experience itself as a godhead in its own universe. Martinus describes this universe of memories as a “gold copy” of the experienced spiral cycle, given to the perfected son of God as a living image of the eternal Godhead’s universe. ^[20]

Love, prayer and union with the Godhead

The Godhead’s relation to the living being is expressed through universal love. Martinus describes this love as the Godhead’s inner radiating power, pervading everything and not dependent on whether a being accepts or rejects it. ^[21]

Prayer is one form of conscious contact with the Godhead. Its highest form is a “living daily conversation or correspondance with the Godhead”, not a request for special favour. Martinus says that prayer has its own laws and cannot simply remove necessary experiences or alter fate that has already been set in motion. ^[22] ^[23]

Prayer becomes aligned with the divine will when it is unselfish and seeks what can be a blessing to all. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” is interpreted as a prayer that the higher human qualities will dominate the animal qualities, so that the will comes into harmony with life and the neighbour. ^[24]

The practical relation to the Godhead is therefore shown in the treatment of fellow beings. Since other beings are organs of the Godhead’s manifestation and experience, the development of neighbourly love is also a development of the being’s conscious relation to God. Martinus connects the road to cosmic consciousness with forgiveness and with embracing enemies in thought. ^[25] ^[26]

Experience of the Godhead

Martinus distinguishes between belief in the Godhead and experience of the Godhead. He describes the latter as the spiritual basis capable of uniting humanity: to experience the Godhead is to experience its manifestations in the daily existence of living beings. The whole world plan then becomes visible as knowledge. ^[27]

This experience does not end the individual’s participation in the spiral cycle. Cosmic consciousness is a created form of consciousness and is therefore transitory, while the eternal I is not created and remains imperishable. The cosmic consciousness must consequently be recreated through the being’s passage through darkness and light. ^[28]

When cosmic consciousness is renewed, the being reaches its primary cosmic life and becomes one with God. Martinus describes this as the finished human being in God’s image, while the eternal I continues through an infinite chain of higher spiral cycles. ^[29]

References

[1] Livets Bog 1, section 251

[2] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 21.7

[3] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 10.1

[4] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 11.27

[5] Livets Bog 1, section 251

[6] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 21.7

[7] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 21.7

[8] Livets Bog 1, section 251

[9] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 11.26

[10] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 11.25

[11] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 10.1

[12] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 10.1

[13] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 11.27

[14] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 11.15

[15] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 13.16

[16] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 13.16

[17] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 23.2

[18] Livets vej, section 1.2 (*)

[19] The Eternal World Picture 4, section 36.10

[20] The Eternal World Picture 4, section 36.10

[21] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.7 (*)

[22] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.2 (*)

[23] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.8 (*)

[24] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.12 (*)

[25] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 21.7

[26] Kosmisk bevidsthed, section 1.15 (*)

[27] Livets Bog 1, section 90

[28] The Eternal World Picture 4, section 35.7

[29] The Eternal World Picture 4, section 35.7

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